Acknowledge!

Trust the Lord with all your heart,
    and don’t depend on your own understanding.

Remember the Lord in all you do,
    and he will give you success.

Proverbs 3:5-6 

Worrying....we're good at that.  We look at the news, see all the chaos and mayhem and start to worry.  We wonder why such things could happen.  We fear that it will come to us.  We worry, fear, worry, fear, and then we hide.  We offer weak prayers to God of "please bless this country" while we do nothing else!

Look at God's Words: "TRUST in the Lord (not in sports, not in weapons, not in weak prayers) with ALL your heart and do NOT depend on YOUR own understanding."  That's pretty slap in the face plain, isn't it.  It's hard to Trust God when it seems we are surrounded by the storms.  But wasn't it in the midst of the storm that God the Son said "BE QUIET!" and the storm obeyed?  Trust God!  

Are you still breathing? Trust God and thank Him!

Are you still working? Trust God and thank Him!

Are you still able to get around? Trust God and thank Him!

God tells us to "Be Still And KNOW that I am God!"  But the problem we have with that is the "Be Still" part.  I can sit still, but I have a very hard time BEING still.  Being still requires that I stop thinking about work; stop daydreaming about a vacation; stop worrying about the absence of funds in my account; stop letting my mind wander and TRUST GOD!

We see people taking a stand for Christ every day!  We see sports athletes acknowledging their accomplishments and achievements as being gifts of God.  So why can't we?

Here's my perspective, take it for what it's worth: My job is to Trust God in everything. It's God's job to make sure I complete His reason for my being here.  And when my time comes to leave here, it will be because God has called me home.  And guess what I will be doing then? Praising God for getting me home!

Our prayers should never be weak!  Pray BOLDLY!  Why? Because the God we serve is not weak!  The God we serve is ALL powerful!  Don't try to limit Him!  Pray that God will work His limitless plan through you!  And you will see amazing things!  TRUST in the Lord with ALL your heart, and don't rely on your own understanding!  We may not understand why God does what He does, but our job is not to understand all they why and wherefores.  Our job is to TRUST Him!  Let HIM do His work through us!

Rock Band!

As he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him. When he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.

“Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the Lord!
    Peace in heaven, and glory in highest heaven!”

But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, “Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!”

He replied, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!”
~Luke 19:36-40

I have to admit it...I am no a fan of the Rolling Stones.  Never have been.  Do hate on me, there's just something about their music that grates on my nerves.  That being said, I will admit they have talent.  A group cannot be around as long as the Rolling Stones and have as many fans as they without having some talent.  It's just they aren't for me.

Jesus seems to have had the same relationship with the "church folk" of His day.  They grated on Him but they must have had something going for them to have been around as long as they were.  But that didn't make them any less annoying.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, the people were cheering for Him.  This irritated the "church folk" because, after all, no one cheered for them.  So they told Jesus to tell the cheering crowd to be quiet (and show some sort of civility because, after all, the 'church folk' are around and it's just not dignified to be so expressive).

Take a close look at Jesus' reply..."If THEY kept quiet, the stone along the road would burst into cheers!"  I don't know about you, but the idea that the stones along the road cheering Jesus would be a bit unsettling....at first.  But perhaps that would be the wake up call we needed to remember that Jesus IS, after all, the King Above ALL Kings!

Want to be part of that Rock Band?

Clean Like New!

Create for me a clean heart, O God!
Renew a resolute spirit within me!

Psalm 51:10

 

I have probably told you before, but sit right back and you're going to hear it again.  In 2005, I began feeling very sluggish and became easily tired.  Finally, I went to the doctor to get a physical.  During the stress test, my left arm went numb.  The doctor stopped the test and told me "You aren't going home."  And within 48 hours, I had quadruple bypass surgery at the ripe old age of 43.  I admit, I did NOT enjoy the recovery process, especially when the incision (which went from chest to belly) began to itch on the inside.  Not just a slight itch like a bug bite....oh NO!  It was that itch like you're wearing a cheap wool sweater against your skin and you cannot scratch it!

 

The itch listed for a few weeks and I was told that I needed to start getting out to exercise a bit more than walking to the mailbox and back.  So I began to toddle off determined to make it to the end of the street.  And I felt AMAZING!  In fact, I felt SO amazing that I kept right on going until I had walked the entire block.  It was as if the doctor ad put a brand new heart in me.  

 

When I went back to the cardiologist for a check up, he told me that bypasses were helping the blood flow more freely and that was why it felt so much better.  He said the blood was flowing through clean arteries for the first time in a long time.  

 

This, like so many other experiences, got filed away to use later.  Well, welcome to later! When you look at a dirty window, the light can still get in and you can still see out (for the most part), but you see things from a dirty and jaded perspective, just like the blood that flowed through my clogged arteries.  But when the window is cleaned, the perspective changes!  It's like seeing the sight for the first time!  And my heart thought the new arteries were amazing because the blood could flow without being sluggish or jaded.

 

As you prepare for the beginning of a brand new year, begin it with a brand new, clear, clean heart! Ask God to give you one, He's good at it and is always willing!   

 

Surpassing The Past!

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

~Philippians 3:13-14

 

 

Many years ago, in a galaxy far far away, I needed a new start.  I really wished there was a way that I could erase my past and just start over, but knew that was not likely to happen.  You see, at some point your past will catch up with you and will rear its ugly head like a sea serpent from the sea of your life and it will attempt to destroy the ship of your life.  But I wanted.....no, that's not quite right....I NEEDED a fresh start.

 

I remember talking with a very wise friend about the fact that I had screwed up my life so much that the only way it would get better would be for me to have a fresh start.  This wise person said, "Are you wearing diapers?"  I admit, I was both amused, confused, and rather stunned to be asked such a question.  I admitted that I was not wearing diapers and had not worn them for quite some time. 

 

My friend said, "Let me give you a little image to ponder.  When you were an infant and your diaper became soiled because of you, you were given a brand new one.  And eventually, you would soil that one too.  And the cycle would go on and on, until you learned to make a change.  When you take a trip and you change your mind on where you want to go, what do you do?  You make a change."  And here's the most poignant part of the discussion that I made me think. He said, "When Jesus called Saul to become Paul, Saul had to make a decision to change.  Saul was not a man to be messed with and had, by his own admission, made a mess of his life.  But Saul chose to learn from his past, and leave it behind in order to have a new beginning."

 

Did Saul's past just disappear?  No, it haunted him for the rest of his life. BUT Paul did not let the ghosts of his past deter him from his new beginning.  Every year, we make New Year Resolutions.  We acknowledge that there are things about our lives we want to change.  But how many times do we fail because we aren't ready to let go of the past habits?

 

Dear Past, 

Thank you for the lessons.

 

Dear Future,

I'm ready! 

 

Are YOU Humble?

He has a name written on his clothing and on his thigh:

 “King of kings and Lord of lords.”

~Revelation 19:16

 

George had it made! After all, he was the ruler of the greatest kingdom on Earth.  With a raising of an eyebrow, he could make or break your fortune.  With the simple gesture of a finger, he could erase your family line from history.  What George wanted, George got!  Simple! 

 

That same mentality has carried over from George's day into ours.  And on so many smaller scales.  

 

But something happened to George that I have not witnessed in my years on this earth.  George the Second, King of England and all her Empires, humbled himself!  Of his OWN accord, he humbled himself, recognizing that there was a King mightier than himself.  You see, on March 23, 1743, George II sat in the Royal Box at the theatre to hear "The Messiah" which had been written by George Frideric Handel.  Throughout the performance, George the Second was intrigued and listened intently.

 

And when the Hallelujah Chorus reached the words: "The kingdom of this world..." King George II of England and her Empire did something NO OTHER monarch had done before...He stood with head bowed throughout the remainder of the song, acknowledging that God's Kingdom was MUCH mightier than any he could control!  In humble recognition this monarch stood in submission to God!

 

How many people of power do you think would do that now?  Look around!  We hear lip service to God quite frequently when it suits.  But how many leaders will actually humble themselves before God?  How many are truly grateful to God for the position they hold?  How many PEOPLE are willing to humble themselves before God and acknowledge that without Him, they would not exist?  

 

Sadly, very few and they are growing more and more scarce every single day!  What about YOU?  Is God your King of Kings and Lord of Lords?  Or do you put your trust in someone else?

 

LISTEN 

It CAN Be Christmas!

“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

~Luke 2:14

 

I don't often copy and paste someone else's work for these devotional, but this one stuck in my mind and I simply felt compelled to share it:

 

On a crisp, clear morning 100 years ago, thousands of British, Belgian and French soldiers put down their rifles, stepped out of their trenches and spent Christmas mingling with their German enemies along the Western front. In the hundred years since, the event has been seen as a kind of miracle, a rare moment of peace just a few months into a war that would eventually claim over 15 million lives. But what actually happened on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day of 1914 — and did they really play soccer on the battlefield?

Pope Benedict XV, who took office that September, had originally called for a Christmas truce, an idea that was officially rejected. Yet it seems the sheer misery of daily life in the cold, wet, dull trenches was enough to motivate troops to initiate the truce on their own — which means that it’s hard to pin down exactly what happened. A huge range of differing oral accounts, diary entries and letters home from those who took part make it virtually impossible to speak of a “typical” Christmas truce as it took place across the Western front. To this day historians continue to disagree over the specifics: no one knows where it began or how it spread, or if, by some curious festive magic, it broke out simultaneously across the trenches. Nevertheless, some two-thirds of troops — about 100,000 people — are believed to have participated in the legendary truce.

Most accounts suggest the truce began with carol singing from the trenches on Christmas Eve, “a beautiful moonlit night, frost on the ground, white almost everywhere”, as Pvt. Albert Moren of the Second Queens Regiment recalled, in a document later rounded up by the New York Times. Graham Williams of the Fifth London Rifle Brigade described it in even greater detail:

“First the Germans would sing one of their carols and then we would sing one of ours, until when we started up ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful’ the Germans immediately joined in singing the same hymn to the Latin words Adeste Fideles. And I thought, well, this is really a most extraordinary thing ­– two nations both singing the same carol in the middle of a war.”

The next morning, in some places, German soldiers emerged from their trenches, calling out “Merry Christmas” in English. Allied soldiers came out warily to greet them. In others, Germans held up signs reading “You no shoot, we no shoot.” Over the course of the day, troops exchanged gifts of cigarettes, food, buttons and hats. The Christmas truce also allowed both sides to finally bury their dead comrades, whose bodies had lain for weeks on “no man’s land,” the ground between opposing trenches.
 

 So you see, Christmas is more than just a day off from work to rip open packages that will be forgotten in a few days.  Christmas is the opportunity to make changes to our hearts and lives.  Take time to let this sink in.  Do you need to make changes? 

Then Came The Wise Men

After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

~Matthew 2:9-11

 

Jesus was born in Bethlehem. And Matthew tells us that there came Wise men from the East.  I have always found it interesting that Scripture doesn't tell us specifically that there were THREE Wise Men, just that Wise Men came from the East.  They were astronomers, among other things, and were apparently of some royal or high status due to the the gifts they brought.

 

Now, picture this, these Wise Men, out of courtesy to the local ruler, stopped by Herod's Palace to exchange pleasantries and "Oh, by the way, where can we find the child who is the King of the Jews?".  Imagine you are Herod, current King of the Jews by the permission of the Romans, being told that a NEW King of the Jews has been born.  Herod, was NOT a very nice man.  He killed off any competition for his throne and power, even his own sons!  And now these three Princes from another land are asking for directions to see the new king.

 

Herod, being the devious psychopath that he was, told these Wise Men to go to Bethlehem (where the Scriptures had foretold Jesus would be born), and find this new king.  Herod asked them to come back and tell him where they found this new child-king so he (Herod) could go an "worship" Him as well.  Herod's a sneaky one!

 

But the Wise Men follow the star to the place where Jesus was and they brought expensive and precious gifts.  Now...Let's take a look at these gifts, shall we?

 

     * Gold - monetary. Uncommon to be had by common folk like a carpenter and his wife.  Gold  represented Kingship (Kings, after all, had most of their ornamental vestments made of gold).  So we can say the Wise Men were recognizing the Kingship of Christ. 

     * Frankincense - a very aromatic Incense used by Priests when conducting their holy duties.  It was used by the priests when they made sacrifices and it was used to fill the Holy of Holies with sweet aroma for God to breathe.  

 

     * Myrrh - the oil of the Commiphora family of trees.  The oil was difficult to obtain because the trees were armed with thorns which were strong like nails and sharp as porcupine quills.  But the oil was SO precious that it was used for Anointing that which is Holy.  When a King was anointed Myrrh Oil was used. Priests used Myrrh Oil to anoint the Holy Seat of God.

 

So these Wise Men were not only wealthy Princes who came to pay homage to the King of Kings, they were also shrewd enough to see through Herod's politics and they went home without telling Herod where they found Jesus.  

 

Let me ask you...what do you bring to offer to the King of Kings?